Team 48 Michigan Preview
This weekend Lowe’s Monte Carlo driver Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 travel to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Johnson leads the points race by 124 points over Matt Kenseth. Only four races remain before the 2006 “Chase For The Championship” begins.
DRIVER JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES:
IS WINNING NOW SECONDARY AND STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE PRIMARY? "No, I don't see how I could tell myself to not try to win or to get maximum points for winning. I don't see how I would change my strategy. The strategy that I've used all year long has gotten me to this point and been able to give me the point lead. And also, it's helped us rebound from days when we've lost some points. So I just think we need to keep doing what we've been doing and go out and give 100 percent every weekend and see where we end up."
GOALS: "The biggest goal I've set for this season is the championship. And then there are tracks that have given me a hard time. You never know when you're going to win -- when that day is going to come along and everything is going to work out right for you. There are tracks that come up on the schedule that I get excited for and feel that my chances are stronger at, but my own challenges are goals I give myself. One of them was a restrictor plate win and we got two; and then a road course win. I still feel like I've got a lot to learn on a road course. That's my next big goal is to get road course racing under control and be a threat for the win there. And then we always have the challenge of trying to be the champion."
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT CHANGING THE POINTS SYSTEM AND PAYING MORE FOR A WIN? "I think NASCAR has done a good job of making the point system exciting and entertaining. The only think I would ask is that they not be under the assumption if they make more points to win that it's going to change the racing. We race as hard as we can. We do everything we can to win races. Nobody is out there riding around. I just don't want anybody to think that it would make us drive harder and make the racing better. It's not going to do that."
Race Notes
Chassis
Team Lowe’s Racing will take chassis 48385 to Michigan. This chassis finished sixth at Chicagoland in July. Chassis 48297 will serve as backup. It finished second at Fontana in February.
Michigan
Johnson has completed 1,608 of 1,729 laps in his nine starts at Michigan International Speedway. He has an average starting position of 12.6 and an average finishing position of 15.9. He has led 83 laps.
Year
Johnson’s Lowe’s Monte Carlo has been running at the end of every race in 2006. He and Kasey Kahne are the only drivers to win four races this season. He is the only driver to post 17 top-10 finishes. He has finished outside the top 15 only twice.
Streak
Johnson has been among the top 10 in points for 91 consecutive races, since March 2004. Johnson is fifth on the consecutive races in the modern era’s point’s top 10 list. Dale Earnhardt’s 174 races tops the list.
Career
Johnson has won at least three races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first five full-time seasons. He has won a pole award each of those seasons.
Johnson’s victory at Indianapolis was the 22nd of his Nextel Cup career. This win tied him with Terry Labonte for 26th on the list for most victories since 1949. Only five active drivers have more victories.
Pole
Johnson’s pole at Martinsville was the ninth of his career.
History
In 169 starts, Johnson has posted 61 top-5 finishes and 103 top-10 finishes. He has a top-10 finish at every track on the NASCAR Nextel Cup series circuit. Kansas is the only track where he has not posted a top-five finish. Johnson has led 3,705 laps and driven 48,038 laps in his Nextel Cup career covering over 64,833.7 miles. He has finished on the lead lap 131 times.
June Michigan Race
The best decision made by the No. 48 Lowe’s Monte Carlo team was to keep circling Michigan International Speedway in the rain under yellow instead of pitting. Crew chief Chad Knaus and Johnson decided to stay on the track in sixth place as drizzle fell and black clouds hovered around the two-mile, D-shaped oval with less than 85 laps left in the race. Fortunately, for Johnson twenty minutes later the clouds let loose and NASCAR called the race leaving Johnson with a sixth-place finish.
